I can spot an actor drinking from an empty cup from a mile away.  Sometimes there are giveaways—an audible “pop” when a paper cup is put down or the cup momentarily losing its balance when put down—but other times it’s just in the way the actor moves the cup to his or her mouth.

Making something look like it has weight and/or contents has to be, along with pretending to play an instrument, one of the hardest things for an actor to do.

The question is, why don’t they just put a drink in the cup or something weighty in the box?  That would solve/prevent the problem right there.

I should be a director, what?

Now, let’s hope Randall will stay out of this…

Books & Company, Prince George, BC — Books & Company was an overwhelming experience for a young man getting his first taste of the enjoyment of reading.  Huge selection, a store very similar to Regina’s Book & Brier Patch.  Treeplanters would come out of Books & Co. with stacks of books for reading in the bush.  I believe I purchased Catch-22 and The Slaughterhouse-Five, two formative books, at Books & Co.

Mosquito Books, Prince George, BC — Mosquito Books is a much smaller outfit with limited selection.  I mention it only because only they (of the Prince George bookstores) carried Handmade Forests: The Treeplanter’s Experience, an accurate depiction in text and photograph of the treeplanting experience (and a slightly romantic/nostalgic read for the treeplanting veteran).  Not only that, the proprieter of this establishment was willing to forward a copy of Handmade Forests to my brother and bill me for it—the man gave me, a complete stranger, a new book in good faith for future payment.  That alone is worth mentioning the store.

The Book & Brier Patch, Regina, SK — for nostalgic reasons: Dixie and I spent a lot of time there when we were dating and I asked her out in their coffee shop.  Great selection.  They always had lots of Tolkien material at a time when my obsession with the author was at its peak.

The used bookstore in the Sears discount store mall, Regina, SK — Also for nostalgic reasons.  It was my first used bookstore experience and kicked-off several years of incessant book-buying.  There selection wasn’t huge, but there was always something there.  I believe I bought a couple of Woody Allen books there.

The two used bookstores I visited in Guelph, Guelph, ON — one of them was possibly called Macondo Books.  The first store I’m thinking of is attractive mostly because of its idyllic setting: in an older part of the town with historic buildings, a little old-school shop with a wooden floor and great selection.  It helped that it was a rainy day the day I visited the store.  I bought Last Chance to See and Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, among other books, there.

The other bookstore I’m thinking of is loved by my simply for the sheer volume of books it carried.  There were books from floor to 12-foot ceiling.  It was overwhelming and erotic in a non-sexual way, if that’s possible.  I don’t think I even put a (visual) dent in their stock in my time there.  I did, however, come away from there with Kierkegaard’s Fear And Trembling/The Sickness Unto Death.

Books N’ Things, Penticton, BC — a magical place.  There you will find books which aren’t there.  I went in looking for A Walk in the Woods and left the store with A Walk in the Woods, but as far as they knew, it wasn’t in stock and I couldn’t find it anywhere on the shelves.  It simply fell into my hands when I pulled an entirely different book of the shelf.   It’s a true story.  It’s also an overwhelming store, stock-wise.  I find their religion section impressive.  I would almost guarantee that there you will find the book you are looking for.

Westgate Books, Saskatoon, SK — they were a breath of fresh air after a dark encounter at Tramps.  They have good selection, great service and give good trade-in value (even if their prices might seem a bit high).

Honourable mention goes to McNally Robinson in Saskatoon.  I guess by definition they are an “independent bookseller”. but they are a chain and operate on a Chapters-Indigo Books level, so aren’t really what I have in mind with this post.

Feel free to add your own favourite independents in the comments.

I’ll begin by saying that our first car-buying experience (the Taurus wagon) wasn’t all that great.  Three problems I see, in retrospect, with that transaction:

1. We really needed a car (our previous car broke down while on a ferry crossing the South Saskatchewan River).
2. They had the car we really wanted (yes, we did want a station wagon) and we really wanted that car.
3. We were green as green could be.
4. They knew we were green as green could be.

Anyway, they barely budged on their asking price.  I think we managed to get their asking price, taxes in, so I guess they did go down a bit, but it was in no way a relaxing experience.  They wouldn’t even give us a full tank of gas!

Our dealings with Toyota were much different.  Perhaps they’ve got the game down better than the guys at Ford.  In any event, it was a much more satisfying experience.  Perhaps it helped that our sales rep was green as well.

We came to the dealership excited about the possibility of buying the van, but willing to walk away after a certain price.  We had come up with our ideal number, which involved an all-in number.  Our ideal price was to be our initial offer.  According to the research I had done, one should start at least $500.00 to $1,000.00 below the asking price.  Our ideal number was $1,600.00 below the asking price.

After 20 minutes of awkward note-taking and shifting around and wondering who would start this business and how, I told him what our ideal number was.  He then spoke for a while about showing his boss (it turns out he was only the go-between) that we were at least somewhat flexible and willing to give.  I thought his speech would end with the suggestion that we start with a higher price.  Much to my surprise and delight, he suggested we LOWER our initial offer by $700.00!  Maybe he was just playing us, but it made me feel good, so well done to him.

After what felt like a wholly unnecessary game of…whatever you’d call a game in which you write down a number and the guy leaves the office to talk with a higher up who, in turn, scribbles over your number and writes down one of his own, we settled on a price that was only $200.00 higher than our “ideal” price.  After 2.5 hours or so at the dealership—between inspecting the vehicle, test-driving and haggling—we came away feeling pretty good about the whole thing.

We may have been duped, we may have been played—Johnny Salesman may have pulled the proverbial wool over our eyes—but we very nearly got the price we had decided on beforehand, so what does it matter?

Now let’s hope and pray that this baby lasts us a good long time like a good Toyota should.

The powertrain warranty covers (selected parts within?):

1. Engine
2. Transmission/transaxle
3. Front/rear wheel drive
4. Cooling system
5. Seals and gaskets/fluids and filters

The comprehensive plan covers (selected parts within?):

1. Everything covered by the powertrain warranty
2. Cooling system (more parts)
3. fuel system
4. front suspension
5. rear suspension
6. steering
7. brakes
8. electrical system
9. air conditioning
10. electrical switches
11. all sensors and computers
12. engine (exhaust manifold)

I don’t know enough about cars to know what’s what.  The big deal is the engine, which is covered by the powertrain warranty, but the other parts could be an issue as well.  While the Sienna is generally a reliable vehicle, one weakness listed by Consumer Reports is the brakes, which are not covered by the powertrain warranty.

My inclination is to skip the extended warranty.  The majority opinion of the interweb appears to be the same.

That said, while I was looking up extended warranty opinions, I noticed that there has been quite a flap about an “engine sludge” issue with Toyotas, an issue which could result in complete engine failure—a costly repair!  The question is (and I shall ask it before we hand over a cheque on Monday) whether the powertrain warranty would cover the sludge issue.  I suspect it does, but who knows.

I did do quite a bit of homework before buying this vehicle, but not enough, apparently.  Consumer Reports gives a resounding YES to Toyota and never mentions the sludge issue and Toyota’s reputation has been the highest for some time, so I’m a little taken aback.

It’s making me feel a little queezy.

That said, it’s a used vehicle and one never knows.  I might buy a Dodge or Ford that runs relatively problem free for 300,000kms.  I might buy a Japanese vehicle that gives me trouble from the get-go.  What can a person really do?  It all depends on who you talk to—different places will tell you different things about different vehicle makes.  What’s a person to do but take a chance (or not drive)?

Anyway, what is your opinion on getting the extended warranty?

And, has anyone heard about/dealt with this engine sludge issue?

It all begins, of course, with buying the product itself. I will assume you have already done so and will not trouble you with a thorough recounting of the adventures had by yours truly in doing so.

The first step, then, is locating a template. And you want a template, because you are going to be cutting into a fragile instrument and you have never done anything of the kind before and you don’t want to screw it up. So find a template. The Artec website provided templates for a variety of models. When you have printed off the template, make sure that it is to scale (Artec included measurements)—some software, such as Adobe Reader, will adjust graphics to fit the page (a setting which can be undone).

Before using the template, what I did was locate the spot on the guitar where the preamp’s contours would best fit. If you want it to look right (and avoid possible snags), the preamp won’t fit just anywhere. I marked the location using a wax crayon and speed square (I couldn’t find my combination square).

I then taped the template to the guitar with double-sided tape (I used the stuff from putting plastic over the windows in winter). Two things: 1. make sure the dotted line on your template is to scale with the lip on the preamp. My template was not, so I had to improvise. 2. I hadn’t noticed this, but my guitar is not of equal width throughout. It’s narrower near the top of the body. Specifically, the inside edge is beveled, which makes positioning the template a bit tricky. I tried centering it as much as possible, but it wasn’t a perfect job.

Once the template is taped to the guitar, I used an Olfa knife (a box-cutter or other knife with a razor-blade edge would work) to score the template onto the guitar surface. The template also had markings for pilot holes for the screws, but I did not use them. In retrospect it would have been better to use them, but no harm was done.

The picture above shows that I drilled holes in all the corners. I made these holes with my Dremmel tool for two reasons: 1. it would help keep the corners rounded, and 2. I needed to puncture the guitar somehow in order cut out the template. At the time I was planning on using a keyhole saw to cut out the template. I had never seen a keyhole saw before, but after seeing its blunt end at Canadian Tire, I opted to use my jigsaw instead. You coulduse a keyhole saw (this guy apparently did), but you’d need a much larger starter hole. And a larger hole means a larger bit, which means less precision.

The most appeal aspect of the jigsaw is that it can make plunge-cuts so that no holes need to be drilled before using it. I bought some new blades “engineered for splinter-free cuts on both sides of the workpiece” (20 teeth per inch [tpi]). You don’t want to cheap out on the blade because you are going to be cutting into your guitar. BE CAREFUL: the blade reciprocates and may damage the area outside of the template pattern if you aren’t careful. I wasn’t careful (I simply hadn’t anticipated the reciprocating length), as you can see on the top left and bottom right in the picture to the left.

This part of the procedure was the most nerve-wracking. Once the template was cut out, with minimal damage, the rest was easy. But take your time in cutting. Move slowly, delibarately and in small increments. That said, don’t panic about nicks and uneven lines, because the lip of the preamp will cover them nicely.

You’ll notice that I’ve also drilled the pilot holes for the screws in the four corners. As I said, I didn’t use the template for this, but drilled through the screw holes in the preamp after it was fitted onto the guitar body.

To the right is the finished job, before clean up. I’m hoping buffing and polishing (is there a difference?) will deal with the few jigsaw scrapes. (I haven’t wiped off the wax pencil yet, either.)

Next is the installation of the piezzo pickup. This was a relatively simple procedure, as the pickup just sits loose under the guitar saddle. I removed the saddle (which also sits loose, held in by the tension of the guitar strings) and drilled a 1/8” hole (or was it 1/6″?) near the top end of the saddle trough—the bit was a hair to big and wasn’t spinning straight, so I did some damage to the edges of the trough. I tried to centre the pickup as much as I could.

Just feed the cord from the pickup through the hole. Make the hole as small as possible, but large enough so that you don’t have to force the cord through (you don’t want to damage it).

Finally, I drilled a hole for the output cord. I used a 1/4″ brad bit, my largest I have, but that wasn’t big enough. I used one of the carving bits for my Dremmel tool to embiggen the hole. I couldn’t reach all the way to the inside bottom of the guitar, so I used needle-nose pliers to position the female end of the output through the hole. I placed the lockwasher that came with it on the female end before I positioned it so that the lockwasher would be inside the guitar, as it would scratch the outside (and simply not look right). The regular washer and nut go on the outside.

Then, just connect the cords from the pickup and the output to the preamp, put in a battery and you’re set to go!

My tuner seemed to pick up a signal from the guitar, but I will test it on Sunday morning. Like an idiot, I dropped the preamp a few inches to the floor when I was planning all of this. I’m hoping no damage was done. If there was, I may need to learn to solder, because I’m not buying a new preamp already.

Also, because of the pickup sitting underneath the saddle, the action on the guitar is 1/16″-1/8″ higher than it was before. This may not sound like much, but it makes a difference, especially if you’ve been playing the same guitar with the same action for more than 10 years. If it becomes an issue, I may have to either deepen the saddle trough or sand down the bottom of the saddle.

Anyway, there you have it: possibly my most boring post to date—certainly the most technical.

As I was in line at the bank today, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” was playing over the sound system.  It’s a song made for singing along and as I waited I began to do so under my breath, tapping my feet, occasionally bouncing to the beat.  It suddenly occurred to me: What would be the response of the rest of the people in line if I broke forth into an impromptu interpretive dance to this song?  (Think of the music video for Fatboy Slim’s [I just accidentally typed "Fartboy".  Good times.]  “Praise You” music video.)

I’m guessing the response would be generally…unresponsive.  Or negative.  Perhaps security would have thrown me out.  But I know—I know—there would have been at least one person in line smiling inside.

“Yeah, but I’m losing how this relates to whether or not you would do civil blessing ceremonies.”

“You recognise that a straight couple is more than a straight couple. They are people with histories, families, and stories much wider than their sexuality, or even their potential marriage. They are God’s precious-though-broken Creation and you see it as your job to discern if this marriage would be a means of grace to them, or a misguided burden.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“But when it comes to a gay couple, you want me to make a sweeping statement about them – and every single gay couple – based solely on their sexual orientation. Suddenly, who they are, what they do, their divine spark and calling, the grace of God available to them, that’s all irrelevant…”

“No, it’s not irrelevant…”

“But I can ignore all of that and choose to bless or exclude them on the basis of their sexuality. Whereas your straight couple are neither accepted or rejected on the basis of their ‘straightness’, my gay couple should be evaluated solely on the issue of sexual orientation.”

Read more…

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